Setting and achieving your goals is crucial for a product manager. Mid-year reviews are an excellent opportunity to assess and realign your objectives to ensure success. This guide will help you effectively review and adjust your product manager goals for optimal performance.
A mid-year goal review can be invaluable for staying on track and ensuring progress toward your overall objectives. In this blog post, I’ll share tips on preparing for your performance review as a product manager. Let’s get started!
Here are six tips for conducting your six-month performance review.
Step 1: Block off time on your calendar to do a mid-year self-review
The first and most important thing you must do is make time for your self-review. Set a recurring reminder to conduct a 6-month review so that you remember to do this twice a year.
Block off 1-2 hours for this work. What gets scheduled gets done, so make an appointment with yourself to do the work.
Step 2: Make sure your goals are up-to-date
Let’s be honest. Many of the goals you set at the beginning of the year are probably no longer relevant. Companies are continuously changing their priorities, especially when economic conditions are volatile.
If a goal is no longer relevant, scratch it off the list.
Have you been assigned new projects not captured in your goals? If so, add those using the SMART framework.
S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Actionable
R = Relevant
T = Time-bound
Step 3: Conduct a 6-month retrospective review
It all starts by doing a personal retrospective. You’re probably used to doing these with your product teams at the end of a sprint. The same principles apply to you.
Take a moment to reflect on the past six months.
This will help you understand where your time is going and how you can make changes to improve your productivity.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What have I done well so far this year?
- What have I learned so far this year?
- What could I do better?
Step 4: Identify specific examples of how you measure against these goals.
Going back to the SMART framework for goal setting, how have you progressed toward achieving the goals you set for yourself this year?
Depending on how you are measuring success, find the data you need to quantify your success.
I recommend keeping these results weekly in a log that you can update easily. Mine is in a Notion document. Do whatever is easiest for you.
Step 5: Create a plan for addressing the goals you’re struggling with.
Celebrating your wins is great, but if you want to grow your career as a product manager, you must also proactively work on developing your skills and bridging any gaps.
If there are specific skills you need to work on, consider asking your manager for help. Many companies provide stipends for skill development that you should take advantage of.
If you’re struggling to meet specific goals because you depend on others to achieve them, I encourage you to rewrite them so that you are in direct control of your success.
Step 6: Review with your manager
After completing your self-review, meet with your manager to review your results. Many companies have a standard review process, so hopefully, this is the case with you.
If not, let your manager know that you must periodically review your goals to ensure they align with how well you’re doing.
In the meeting, share the goals, what you’ve done well, and what you would like to work on in the coming six months.
Be prepared to ask for specific help to get the training you think would help you grow as a product manager and achieve your goals.
That’s it! Those are the steps you need to take to conduct your six-month performance review. Regularly reviewing and adjusting your product manager goals is essential for career growth. Use this mid-year review to stay on track and achieve your objectives. Please contact me if you want help setting up your goals or reviewing them with your manager. I’d happily discuss how you can best achieve your product management objectives.
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